Application and Typical Prophecies - Daniel 3

In this chapter, faithfulness and fearlessness, in the face
of extreme adversity, are modeled by Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego. Following their example, believers during times of
turmoil and tribulation should be encouraged to hold to the
faith.

This chapter is prophetic, foreshadowing the
ultimate preservation and restoration of Israel in spite of
the wrath of the Antichrist during the Tribulation Period.

The near future is typified by the three men from
Judah (Jews) and the fourth person in the fiery furnace.
Herein is portrayed God’s presence and His protection of the
faithful remnant during the Babylonian exile. The Jews will
not perish as a people but will come out of the furnace when
the king commands. What is typified here was fulfilled in King
Cyrus’ decree in 538 B.C.

Subsequent history of the
Jews shows that the courage of Daniel’s friends encouraged the
Jewish patriots during the time of the Maccabean revolt
against Antiochus Epiphanes, who foreshadows the Antichrist.
He commanded the Jews to violate the regulations of their
sacred law and apostatize from their ancestral faith on pain
of death.

And the king sent letters by messengers to
Jerusalem and the towns of Judah; he directed them to follow
customs strange to the land, to forbid burnt offerings and
sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane
sabbaths and festivals, to defile the sanctuary and the
priests, to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for
idols, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals, and to leave
their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves
abominable by everything unclean and profane, so that they
should forget the law and change all the ordinances. He added,
“And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die”
(1 Maccabees 1:44-50, NRSV).

In his last words,
Mattathias said:

Elijah, because of great zeal for the
law, was taken up to heaven. Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael
believed and were saved from the flame” (1 Maccabees 2:59,
NRSV).

The courage and faith of such men encouraged
the Jews to fear God, not man. This will be the ultimate test
in the end times for “faith is the victory that overcomes the
world!”

The nation of Israel is a miracle—a far
greater miracle than three Hebrews saved from the flames and
heat of the fiery furnace. The very fact of Israel’s
existence, after three thousand years of passing through the
fires of satanic opposition, is proof there is a God of heaven
who rules. Israel is God’s polemic against false gods (Isaiah
41). The fiery furnace is symbolic of the saving of Israel.

They will know that I am the LORD, when I disperse
them among the nations and scatter them through the countries.
But I will spare a few of them from the sword, famine and
plague, so that in the nations where they go they may
acknowledge all their detestable practices. Then they will
know that I am the LORD (Ezekiel 12:15-16).

God’s
protection and preservation of the Jews, while they are in the
fires, is proof that He continues to be the God of Israel
during periods of chastisement according to Isaiah 43:1-7:

But now, this is what the LORD says—he who created you, O
Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have
redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When
you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you
pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When
you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames
will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy
One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush
and Seba in your stead. Since you are precious and honored in
my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange
for you, and people in exchange for your life. Do not be
afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the
east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north,
‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the
earth—everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my
glory, whom I formed and made.”

Just as chapter two’s
panorama of history is followed by the persecution of the
faithful remnant in chapter three, so will the times of the
Gentiles end with the persecution and salvation of Israel.

The sixth century prophet Zechariah announced God’s
purpose behind the yet future fiery furnace for Israel.

“In the whole land,” declares the LORD, “two-thirds will
be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it.”
This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like
silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and
I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they
will say, ‘The LORD is our God’” (Zechariah 13:8-9).

Thus, the fiery furnace is a type of the Great Tribulation,
which constitutes the second half of the seventieth “seven”
revealed and recorded in Daniel 9:24-27. This period will be
seven times hotter for the Jews than any previous times of
distress. It is “A Time for Jacob’s Trouble” according to the
prophet Jeremiah. This period serves multiple purposes of God
as manifested by the following outline of Jeremiah 30:4-11.

A TIME FOR JACOB’S TROUBLE A Time of Travail,
Jeremiah 30:4-6 A Time of Terror, 7a A Time of
Triumph, 7b-11b

End of the times of the Gentiles, 8

Beginning of Christ’s Kingdom, 9 Restoration of
Israel to the Land, 10a Rest for Israel, 10b Salvation
for Israel, 11a End of All Nations, 11b

A Time of
Training, 11c

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are by
inference in The Faith Hall of Fame: “Who through faith . . .
quenched the fury of the flames” (Hebrews 11:33). When we
consider that Yahweh gave light and protection to His people
in the desert by means of a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21;
14:19-20), it is not surprising to find His presence also in
the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-4), or the fiery furnace.

The application for the Christian is that God saves us in
the fire but not from the fire. He takes us through the fire
to test and refine our faith as well as to manifest His glory
before an unbelieving world. To all who will stand firm in
faith, there is the promise of persecution. No saint in any
age has been popular with the world. Therefore, “consider it
pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops
perseverance” (James 1:2-3).

Nowhere in the whole
Bible is there a verse that supports the contention that this
present age is going to get better and better, until at last,
through mutual understanding between men and nations the
Gospel will banish war and bring about an age of peace and
contentment. Instead, David describes this present age as a
time of rebellion against God.

Why do the nations
conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth
take their stand and the rulers gather together against the
LORD and against his Anointed One. “Let us break their
chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters (Psalm 2:1-3).

Nebuchadnezzar foreshadows the Antichrist who will
conspire against God in the end times. He will set up his
image on the wing of the Temple in Jerusalem; then he will
demand that everyone worship it or die. The images erected by
Nebuchadnezzar and the Antichrist represent the state and its
monarch. One religion for all people, nations, and languages
during the end times is foreshadowed in Daniel 3:4. All must
conform to state worship or die.

Paradoxically, God’s
government disallows separation of state and religion. Yahweh
instituted state religion when he created the nation of
Israel. The millennial reign of Christ will be a state
religion. Many of man’s efforts to combine state and religion
have been devastating. Constantine corrupted the Church with
state religion. In the Dark Ages, the popes, through abuse of
their religious power, usurped the authority of kings, all in
the name of religion.

America’s forefathers, in the
Bill of Rights, legislated against the tyranny of the state
religions of England and Europe. State religion will reach its
darkest moment under the Antichrist in the end times and its
brightest day during Christ’s millennial reign.

The
dimensions of the image are not without significance. Its
height was sixty cubits and its width was six cubits. The
number of man is six. Six stops short of perfection. Six then
is the number of human incompleteness. Man was made on the
sixth day; the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD.
Revelation 13:18, speaking of the number of the beast, says:

This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him
calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His
number is 666.

One of the sixes is missing in
Nebuchadnezzar’s image, possibly because the religious system
is incomplete. On the other hand, six musical instruments are
mentioned with the worship of the image (Daniel 3:15). Little
did Nebuchadnezzar know that the golden image he erected on
the plain of Dura would foreshadow the image and number of the
beast.

Babylon embodies the religious system of man.
It began with the erection of a tower on the Plain of Shinar;
it continued with Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image on the plain
of Dura; and it will end with the beast’s image on the wing of
the Temple.

The image is of gold (materialism) and of
a man (humanism), possibly the main elements of the religion
forced on the inhabitants of the world by the false prophet,
during the end times (cf. Revelation 13:11-17). The golden
image also foreshadows Satan’s attempt to sidetrack God’s plan
for the future. The Antichrist, like Nebuchadnezzar, will
attempt to make the whole image gold (the end time empire),
not just its head. He will almost achieve his goal as
indicated by the title given to his empire.

This title
was written on her forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE
MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH
(Revelation 17:5).

The three faithful men in the fiery
furnace prefigure the Jews saved in the midst of the fire. The
Jews’ bonds will be burned off in the end times. Just as God
preserved the 7,000 Israelites who did not bow to Baal in
Elijah's day, so He is going to preserve 144,000 Jews during
the Tribulation Period (1 Kings 19:18; Revelation 7:1-8). They
will be victorious over the beast and his image (Revelation
14:1-6). When God delivers, He does it miraculously.

Not one Israelite perished in the Red Sea. Not one Jew
perished in the fiery furnace. Not one of the 144,000 will
perish in the Tribulation. Those who stand with the Lamb will
be sealed and safely delivered. The soldiers, who died while
throwing the three Jews into the fire, foreshadow the fate of
those who will persecute the Jews in the end times.

Nebuchadnezzar’s royal decree provides the basis for Christ’s
separation of the people one from another as a shepherd
separates sheep from goats. Those separated as sheep will
enter the millennial kingdom and eternal life. Those separated
as goats will go away into eternal punishment (cf. Matthew
25:31-46). Opposition to God’s people ends in terrifying
consequences, as we will see in chapter six.

Nebuchadnezzar is a dual type of the Antichrist and Christ.
Verse 26 is exhilarating from the Christian’s perspective.

Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing
furnace and shouted, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants
of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire.

The
unquenchable and non-consuming flames of Hell are the destiny
of everyone until Christ issues the invitation to “Come out!
Come here! Enter My kingdom.” According to the NT, every
believer is to follow suit, extending Christ’s invitation to
the perishing.

Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch
others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy,
mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted
flesh (Jude 22-23).

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
were tested by fire; survived the fire; and received their
reward. That sounds very much like the Christian at the
Judgment Seat of Christ.

His work will be shown for
what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be
revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each
man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his
reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself
will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames (1
Corinthians 3:13-15).

This chapter emphasizes the
truth that the wise fear the LORD, not people. Ultimately,
those who trust and obey God will be rewarded. In the
intervening time, every “fiery furnace” trial can produce
within a believer a stronger faith, resulting in spiritual
maturity.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face
trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of
your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its
work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking
anything (James 1:2-4).

Every believer, who perseveres
in testing, has the potential to be a bold witness of the
power of God in his or her life.